Pisang Goreng or banana fritters is so common in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia and I believed all household will have its very own unique recipe to deep fry bananas.. It is nothing difficult, just flour and water and some added eggs to it. However, most household will try to use a batter that creates a crispy crust and maintained its crispiness as long as possible.

That is the challenge of preparing deep fried banana fritters that stay crispy for a long time… Hawkers also have a secret recipe that make the banana fritters stay crispy for a longer period of time… Some rumoured that “plastic bottle” were added to the hot oil such that the melted plastic coated the fritters and making the fritters stay crispy as long as they want. Goggling “ pisang goreng plastic bottle “ will show you much have been talked about in the internet but I have to qualify that this is rumour without any evidence to substantiate the claims..

Crispiness is the key word..Everybody aims to make the fritters crispy. Every household will tell you different “secret” recipes of theirs and I will tell you mine.. Wait, but I am not telling you that mine is the crispiest, but it is very crispy for at least for the first few hours..

Among the method that were used for crispier crust are:

Use of icy cold water

Use of rice flour

Addition of corn flour

Addition of some slaked lime (kapur)

Adding some hot oil into the batter before deep frying

Adding of margarine to the batter

Avoid using eggs in the batter

Twice frying the fritters

Deep fried at 185 degree Celsius

I have prepared two batches.. The first batch is using pisang tanduk (round shape) and applying the normal deep frying method followed by refrying to make it crispier. However, such crispiness cannot be compared to the second batch (long shape) where hot oil and ammonia bicarbonate were added prior to deep frying. That crispy fritter is very much similar to those sell in the hawker stalls.

Whether or not you are game to use ammonia bicarbonate, i will leave it to the reader to decide. If you want, you can get it in the local bakery shop. As a matter of fact, ammonia bicarbonate is still commonly found in the food that we ate such as : You Tiao (chinese crullers), Hong Kong smiling pao, deep fried taro balls etc.) .As per Wikipedia:

“Ammonium bicarbonate is used in the food industry as a raising agent for flat baked goods, such as cookies and crackers, and in China in steamed buns and Chinese almond cookies. It was commonly used in the home before modern day baking powder was made available. In China it is called edible or food-grade “smelly powder”. Many baking cookbooks (especially from Scandinavian countries) may still refer to it as hartshorn or hornsal”

As for the type of bananas, personally, I prefer pisang abu . However, pisang tanduk and pisang raja can also be used. In Malaysia, most will only deep fried banana that cannot be eaten raw. It does make sense since if banana can be eaten raw, why is there a need to deep fry it.. But for readers who have less choices of banana, any type of banana can also be used for deep frying. If you are unsure of the type of banana, image search using Google for “Pisang raja, Pisang abu and Pisang tanduk” will give you an idea. In Singapore, all these 3 types of bananas can be easily obtained from Geylang Serai Wet Market.

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Some banana of your choice (1 medium size pisang tanduk was used for this illustration)

one egg

100 grams of rice flour

50 grams of self raising flour

20 grams of custard powder

20 grams of corn flour (optional)

120 grams of icy cold water

Just before deep frying

1/2 teaspoon of ammonia bicarbonate

1 tablespoon of hot cooking oil or margarine

STEPS OF PREPARATION

Mix all the ingredients (except ammonia bicarbonate and hot cooking oil) until well combined. If you want to make the batter looked yellowish, you can add pinches of turmeric powder.

Heat up a pot of hot oil. The oil is consider as hot enough when a chopstick inserted into the hot oil, bubbles start to emit. Once the oil is ready, put one tablespoon of hot oil into the batter and 1/2 teaspoon of ammonia bicarbonate, quickly stir until well mixed. Coat the banana with the batter and deep fry the banana fritters until light golden brown.

Drain and set aside to cool for at least 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, transfer the banana fritters back to the hot oil, deep fried again until the banana is golden brown. The main purpose is to let the moisture in the deep fried banana escaped via refrying and hence become crispier.

CONCLUSION

Do give this recipe a try. It is very crispy and stay longer than my usual way of deep frying. I hope my picture can convince readers to try. If your banana fritter becomes less crispy, you can re-bake at 200 degree Celsius in the oven until your desired crispiness.

If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.

I saw this lady selling fried kueh tel cheng po po and many other fried food in our JB pasar malam , she throw in the plastic bag together with the rubber band still on it to the frying pan in order to fry some more kueh tel.Which I used to buy her food. From that day onward I never want to eat outside food.And another lady that sell hay mee she reused her hay mee soup when there is a left over from customer.